This past week saw announcements from local candidates regarding this year's NCGA elections. With just a few weeks left before filing begins, things are sure to get interesting as the State and Federal election cycles ramp up.
On Tuesday, State Senator Jeff Tarte (Rep) sent out an email blast announcing a long list of endorsements - including endorsements from three Davidson Commissioners - Brian Jenest, Beth Cashion, and Stacey Anderson. See here for the announcement and complete list.
Not all that surprising is the absence from the list of Mayor Woods, Commissioners Graham, and Commissioner Fuller. If they were to endorse anyone in the upcoming general election cycle for the NCGA, I'd put my money on Democrat and Davidson local, Natasha Marcus, in the NC House 98 race to replace Thom Tillis. All three were pictured here at the campaign kick-off event in Davidson for Ms. Marcus with Mayor Woods doing the candidate introduction. Interestingly, Mayor Woods was listed as a "supporter" of Republican John Bradford in this announcement regarding his recent Cornelius campaign, but he's missing from the list of elected officials endorsing Bradford for the NC-98 race.
Speaking of the NC-98 race and John Bradford, Bradford's campaign announced an important appointment this week. Joshua Dobi will chair Bradford's election campaign committee. That name may sound familiar to readers of this blog. When Bradford announced his intention to run for this seat, we pointed out that local businessman Joshua Dobi had strongly urged voters to support Bradford in his recent run for Cornelius Town Board.
On Bradford's campaign site, ElectBradford.com, the campaign says of Dobi's selection to chair the campaign committee...
"Choosing a CEO in a successful Lake Norman area business is a calculated decision"
Seems like there are a lot of "calculated decisions" going on. Then again, this is politics.
Rick, keep in mind that Jeff Tarte and Natasha Marcus are running for different offices. My support of Natasha has nothing to do with my name not being on Senator Tarte's list of endorsements. Plain and simple, I wasn't asked. Perhaps he assumed that as a Democrat I would not endorse him. Frankly I could care less about his party affiliation. I do care that he did not seem to try to reach across the aisle (although my endorsement or lack thereof isn't going to make a difference in a safe GOP district).
ReplyDeleteHey Rodney,
ReplyDeleteLike I said, "it's not surprising..."
In fact I would have been shocked to see your name on Senator Tarte's endorsement list.
You've been a staunch supporter of Davidson's taxes. Senator Tarte has worked in the NCGA to lower taxes and fix the botched revaluation.
More recently, when Senator Tarte posted a link on his Facebook page about North Carolina's dropping unemployment rate you tried to undermine the positive message that sends.
So, no I'm not at all surprised you didn't endorse him. Your political beliefs appear to be pretty far apart.
Rick, let me clear up your reply. Your original post concluded that I did not endorse Tarte because I am of a different party or that I don't agree with him. As my comment indicates, the real reason is because I was not asked. I had no idea he was about to annoucne. I'm not in that loop. Why would I even care to make an endorsement at this point in time, not knowing who his opponent will be? Basically everyone who endorsed him is endorsing him against a blank piece of paper. What is the point of that?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the unemployment rate, I'm sure you're about to post a very positive blog about how the US rate just dropped from 7% to 6.7% under the leadership of Democrat Barack Obama. I'm not, because if you look at the underlying reasons, it is all because people gave up looking for work. Not a reason, in my opinion, to crow. If you actually read the article that Sen. Tarte shared on facebook, it said that it appears that the primary reason that the rate is dropping in NC is because people are either giving up looking for work or going onto welfare. Again, not in my opinion a reason to crow. I commented on it because Sen. Tarte wasn't getting past the headline into the facts of the matter. More than any party affiliation I consider myself to be a 'factualist' and I am disappointed when people just skim the surface and don't go to the next level of understanding. And if you read Sen. Tarte's response to my comment, he says something like "hey, I'm not making as much as I did 3 years ago." Is that our goal as a state, to be OK with being less well off than we were 3 years ago (when the rest of the country is pretty much back to even)? It is not my goal.
Regarding an endorsement of Sen. Tarte, I'll wait to see if he wins the GOP primary, and I'll wait to see who he is running against. You might be shocked to know that I've frequently supported GOP candidates and actually stepped across the party line and voted for them on many occasions. The party affiliation is simply the 'headline' and as I said I like to go deeper than that.
Thanks for the detailed comment Rodney. It's always a good thing when elected officials provide the public an insight into how they really think. Glad I was able to provide you that opportunity.
DeleteI did read that entire article when it was posted. In case you are interested, here's a link from Friday that somewhat puts the declining unemployment numbers for North Carolina into perspective relative to our immediate neighbors. The comparison is actually pretty positive.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/north-carolina-cut-jobless-benefits-and-the-sky-didnt-fall-102048.html#.UtLhBe0o7IU
On the validity and worth of endorsements at this stage of the political cycle by your fellow elected officials, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think they have value. You apparently do not think they have much. And that's quite alright.